American drone shot down by Iranians

[Tony]

Looks like the war, even if still unofficial, has already started...

m-WdnqvAaNs

[Artaxat]

There won't be a war in a sense of airstrikes (at least not in the beginning)

First, the efforts are towards imlpoding Iran from within. Might take a while though.

Also Syrian has to continue bleeding to cut off Iran-Syria-Hezbolla-Hamas link.

Give it another 6 month

[European blood]

President Barack Obama said Monday that the United States has asked Iran to return a U.S. drone aircraft that Iran claims it recently brought down in Iranian territory.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," Obama said in a news conference.

The president's comments come one day after it was reported that an Iranian official said the country would not return the drone.

"No nation welcomes other countries' spy drones in its territory, and no one sends back the spying equipment and its information back to the country of origin," said Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the Armed Forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

"It makes no difference where this drone originated and which group or country sent it to invade our air space," Salami said. "This was an act of invasion and belligerence."

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/12/u-s-wants-drone-back-from-iran-obama-says/?hpt=hp_t2

[SwordoftheVistula]

It wasn't shot down. The Iranians have captured it intact.

Official explanations:

"It ran out of gas"

"It landed on its own because it had a survival instinct"


More likely explanation:

A diversity/affirmative action muslim member of the military landed it in Iran.

Way to go, interventionists [golf clap]

[Egbert]

I'm in agreement with Cheney on this one, a missed opportunity for a "quick airstrike" to destroy or retrieve the drone. Very typical of Obama to grovel before the Iranians though.

[Contra Mundum]

LOL@ Obama for asking Iran to give it back. That's hilarious.

[Mordid]

Crashed or shot down it matters little, if it was a RQ-170 that's quite a boost for Iran, and esp China and Russia if they can negotiate access, as they are in a better position to exploit it technology wise.

[Supreme American]

It wasn't shot down. It had an error and landed automatically. That's why it has no damage.

[Contra Mundum]

If it has an error it's programmed to return to base. It could have been jammed by the Iranians using Russian or Chinese technology.

"Some reports have said Russia sold (Iran) a very sophisticated jamming system a short time ago," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Fox News on Sunday. "Now, our military says that is not true, it came down because of a malfunction. I certainly hope that's right because if the Russians have provided Iran with sophisticated jamming equipment it means a lot else is at risk too."

The true enemy of America is its government, not Iran. The needless invasion of Iraq killed 4,500 Americans and wounded 32,000. The same government that is flooding America with 3rd world immigrants and running up massive debt. It is by far the biggest threat to the American people.

[Joe McCarthy]

Incidents like this make me long for the classics. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Seconds_Over_Tokyo)

[The Journeyman]

It could just be a trojan horse, they probably have a recording and tracking device in it to see where it goes and who they share it with, i.e. Chinese.

[SwordoftheVistula]

It had an error and landed automatically

Right :rolleyes:

[Der Steinadler]

i thought they'd intercepted its signals and brought it down themselves.

[Contra Mundum]

i thought they'd intercepted its signals and brought it down themselves.

A possibility but the US government would never admit that happened.

[SwordoftheVistula]

Some top conservative commentators are saying Obama purposely gave them the drone because he sympathizes with Islamists (or is one)

I'm still inclined to think it was just a low level drone operator who was a spy/sympathizer.